Last month, a troubling crime took place in the London borough of Richmond. It wasn’t a burglary or a handbag snatched from one of the wealthy residents. It took place at Kew’s Royal Botanic Gardens and the stolen item in question was a very special water lily.

The plant, nymphaea thermarum, is the world’s smallest lily, with pads measuring less than 1cm in diameter. The species originated in Rwanda, where it died out six years ago. Scientists in Germany and London spent years trying to cultivate it from a dwindling supply of seeds.

Two years ago, with just two batches of seeds remaining, Kew horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena recreated the exact conditions that the lily needed to thrive and 50 plants were produced. But because of the very precise levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide it requires, the lily remains on the critically endangered list.

It was taken from a shallow pond in the aquatic zone of Kew’s Princess of Wales Conservatory and will quickly die without the right care.

So, who was behind the theft? ‘It’s probable this was an organised crime with the actual perpetrator a hardened criminal, who was stealing the plant to order,’ said Dr Richard Thomas at Traffic, the wildlife-monitoring network.

‘The person who put the perpetrator up to this is probably a wealthy individual, obsessed with owning this very rare lily specimen, who cares nothing for the hurt and damage they have caused, both to the staff at Kew Gardens and to the scientific community.’

Does this theft indicate an increase in rare plant theft? The answer is both yes and no. Criminals have, for some time, been aware that the attention of law-enforcing agencies is focused elsewhere.

‘The global illegal trade in flora and fauna is nothing new,’ said Dr Angus Nurse, a senior lecturer in criminology at Middlesex University. ‘Criminals are aware that the enforcement of wildlife crime is often under-resourced and are turning their attention from other established areas of activity, such as drugs and weapons, to trading in wildlife and plants.

‘These are commodities which are easier to dispose of, and where the penalties, if the perpetrators are caught, are often lower than for mainstream crimes. As a result, plant and wildlife theft can represent a relatively low risk, high reward activity.’

And you might be surprised to know just how high the rewards can be. In 2010, a rare Lady’s Slipper orchid growing on a Lancashire golf course was given police protection.

Private collectors have been known to pay up to £10,000 for similar plants. ‘The reality is that where illegal activity is concerned, a rare plant is just a commodity,’ said Dr Nurse.

‘The Traffic network which monitors wildlife trade has said that the legal global trade in ornamental plants is valued at more than £9billion.’

The risks for illegal trade can be great. In 2006, British pharmaceutical scientist Dr Sian Lim was given a four-month prison sentence for smuggling 126 rare orchids after he was caught at Heathrow.
Lim had brought the plants back from Malaysia. In 2011, a rare species of fern was stolen from the National Trust-run Nymans estate in West Sussex.

Although the culprit wasn’t caught, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, those who steal from a Site of Scientific Interest, can face fines of about £20,000.

‘The Metropolitan Police certainly takes wildlife crime seriously,’ said Dr Nurse. ‘They recently hosted a seminar on the topic with the Mayor’s Office For Policing And Crime and the World Society For The Protection Of Animals.’

But that raises another question. Do we really want our rare plants to be the subject of 24-hour security patrols or displayed only behind glass and banks of surveillance cameras? Dr Alastair Culham of Reading University said increased security might be inevitable.

‘A quick look around the Princess of Wales Glasshouse at Kew will show you some plant groups are already protected in that way,’ he said.

‘It’s like putting a great painting behind glass – you can still see the picture but you lose appreciation of the detail and texture.’

You may baulk at the suggestion that a rare lily could ever be regarded as highly as a piece of art.
But interestingly, what sets rare plants apart is precisely what makes them even more appealing to criminals than a Monet or Van Gogh.

‘Plants are not like paintings because from one plant you can grow more and you can also use the plant to breed new things,’ said Dr Culham.

‘Most of our cultivated water lilies are selections or hybrids and the species of lily taken from Kew could potentially add a lot of novel features.’

One thing is certain. The theft of nymphaea thermarum was a blow.

‘It was only after much horticultural experimentation that they found out how to grow the water lily,’ said Prof Tim Entwisle at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.

‘Kew was poised to restore the plant to its natural locality. Setbacks like this don’t help.’